9Ja Eco-charity Festival Excites Beach Fun-seekers

ON Christmas, two days ago at New Lekki Beach, Elegushi, lovers of outdoor activities in Lagos were treated to a lot of fun and excitement at the on-going maiden 9Ja Eco-Charity Festival 2015 scheduled to end January 2, 2016. The concert is the initiative of Eco Restoration Foundation of Nigeria (ERFON), and inspired by its Executive Director, Prince David Omaghomi.

Among artistes and personalities that made the opening a real feast was Wazobia FM’s Diplomatic OPJ. The fiesta also gave opportunity to youngsters to showcase their talent as they performed to thrill the huge crowd of spectators. Prizes were also won in various performance activities like dancing, singing, rapping, fashion and lots more. Also, many others simply caught fun splashing the ocean waves that crashed on the clean sandy beach. There was music, food, drinks and assortment of games for children; some rode merry-go-round and horses.

According to the organiser, Omaghomi, 9Ja Eco-Charity Festival 2015 is designed to raise awareness about environmental issues in Nigeria’s coastline areas and how they could be made clean and friendly for economic and tourism purposes. “We’re utilizing the instrument of entertainment through music, comedy, dance, water sports, beach volleyball and beach soccer to promote environmental responsibility,” Omaghomi noted. “It’s a Green Theme event designed to promote environmental responsibility and sustainability. Participants are being trained on waste management practices at homes and workplaces as well as planting of trees.”

Omaghomi said the highpoint of the festival was the planting of 3,000 trees by performing artistes and dignitaries on the beach stretch that would act as buffer to the encroaching ocean which started yesterday and would last till the end of the festival. He stated that the tree-planting project was a way of stemming the on-surging ocean on the beachland, saying that in the last few years over the ocdean had claimed over 500 metres of beachland and still ragging. He further lamented the loss of the coconut trees that used to be the attraction of Lagos beaches to the ocean surge. Omaghomi stressed that if immediate intervention strategies were not deployed to stem further encroachment of the ocean, Lagos would be robbed of its beautiful beaches in no distant future.

For Omaghomi, the beaches and Nigeria’s coastal areas are treasures – both economic and touristic – Nigeria’s complacence was allowing to waste away. He wants the degradation halted and the sort of restoration and remediation measures he was carrying out put in place to save the country’s neglected but rich natural resource.